Much ado about Kate Middleton’s bridal dress

How Kate Middleton plans to keep Prince William’s eyes off her dress until the wedding.

Bookies' bets on the designer for Kate Middleton's wedding dress are on Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen, who designed the white wedding dress on the left, but rumours are flying that Kate Middleton has two back-ups in case her design is leaked to the media. Bruce Oldfield, who draped Jerry Hall in red chiffon for her wedding to Mick Jagger, is one name being floated, while the other is Jasper Conran, who designed the gown worn by Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, daughter of Princess Maragret, when she married Daniel Chatto in 1994.

Published on Thu Apr 14 2011

It’s a mere three weeks before the Royal Wedding, and Kate Middleton has managed to keep the design of her bridal dress top secret. It’s a colossal feat considering the epic media scrutiny and public fascination around this singular detail — The Dress — centrepiece of the wedding of the decade.

If the latest rumours are true, Middleton has commissioned three wedding dresses from three different designers so that she’ll have two backups in case details of her gown are leaked to the media. This royal bride-to-be is going to extraordinary and expensive lengths to keep the dress under wraps.

You would think the age-old tradition whereby the bride ensures the groom doesn’t lay eyes upon miles of tulle and yards of lace until she arrives at the church is irrelevant these days. After all, engaged couples now live together, share everything and even split wedding expenses.

But a recent survey for the Canadian magazine Weddingbells showed 87 per cent of readers think the wedding dress should remain a carefully guarded secret.

Middleton is just like most women, who want to make sure the first time the groom sees the dress it will be on his beautiful bride. Although millions will witness the big reveal at the same time, the wow factor is directed only at her prince.

And as the world inhales collectively when they see the raven-haired beauty arrive at Westminster Abbey in her wedding finery, sewing machines around the world will begin to whir.

Just like the blue wrap dress she wore during the announcement of her engagement and the sapphire ring that once belonged to Diana, the wedding dress will be copied within days.

It’s not like the ’80s, when it took weeks for Diana’s dress to appear in wedding shops, according to professor Alison Matthews David, who teaches the history of costume at Ryerson University’s school of fashion.

“With cellphone cameras, if Kate’s dress was leaked it would be knocked off and on the market and William will see 500 of his bride’s wedding dresses before he can see it on her. And that would be horrific!”